Transportation Roundup: Post-Earthquake Infrastructure Update and NJ's Case Against Congestion Pricing

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Yes, we are going to continue to talk about the aftermath of the earthquake in our area. As you've been hearing, this earthquake measured preliminarily at 4.7 on the scale that they use for those things, which is still pretty mild as they go. Our geologists guess a few minutes ago said it's really over seven on that scale where you would expect deaths to occur.

Of course, there's been enough rattling of people's homes and other buildings that you've been reporting to us on the phone, listeners, that we don't know for sure that there were no deaths or injuries in this, but that is not the first level of the reporting, at least. Thank goodness.

We will continue to take your phone calls, but something more than I felt shaking. You know what I mean? We know now everybody felt shaking. If anything more unusual happened or more extreme happened where you are that you want to help us report, keep calling 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or text as well to that number.

As a coincidence, Stephen Nessen, our transportation reporter, was scheduled anyway this morning, but to talk about something else. Now we're going to talk about both things.

Stephen was coming on to talk about congestion pricing getting its day in court, really two days in court, the last two days in New Jersey. New Jersey is making a claim that congestion pricing, which of course is the fee that's supposed to be implemented in June for driving on the streets of Manhattan below 60th street, that it's unconstitutional, as well as calling for the environmental review that it took the MTA three years to do insufficient, and saying that they need to start that over from scratch.

We'll talk to Stephen Nessen now, your friendly neighborhood transportation reporter, as he goes on Twitter about both the day in court for congestion pricing, and potential transportation effects in our area from this earthquake. Hi, Stephen. What a surprise.

Stephen Nessen: Hello, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: You didn't think you'd be talking about this.

Stephen Nessen: Anything can happen in a big city.

Brian Lehrer: Holland Tunnel closed for inspection is the first report that we're getting of anything significant in terms of the transportation infrastructure here. Do you have anything more specific on that, or any other transit news?

Stephen Nessen: Well, I'm sorry to say, I don't have anything more specific than that. I'm seeing the same report you're seeing. I did reach out to the MTA to check and see where any of the subways rails or bridges or tunnels that they're in charge of impacted by the earthquake, and they said no impacts yet.

Then we got the announcement the Holland Tunnel was closing, so I immediately messaged them again and was like, "Wait, wait, are you going to inspect any of your bridges or tunnels?" They said, "Nothing yet." If anything changes, they say they'll let me know. At this point, as far as we know, the only piece of transportation infrastructure impacted would be the Holland Tunnel closed for inspections. We certainly haven't heard that any pieces fell or anything like that. No.

Brian Lehrer: Right, and what we got from NJ Transit that people can expect 20-minute delays on the trains as they inspect bridges. Those are some pretty quick inspections if it's only going to be 20-minute delays. It seems to me as a layperson, like the prudent thing to do and that the MTA should be expecting its above-ground infrastructure as well where there are bridges, where there are elevated lines, things like that. According to you, there's no immediate announcement along those lines.

Stephen Nessen: Nothing yet, but like you were saying, you remember there was the F train derailment in Coney Island earlier this year. It was very minor, but a train did come off the track slightly and they closed that for hours to do a visual inspection, checking that very small section to make sure that it was cleared and safe for trains to be on it.

Imagine all the miles of MTA track to inspect and NJ transit, I don't know that they're going to be doing [chuckles] visual inspection for every single mile. I don't know if that's possible. I should say, I don't know how they're going to do it. Whether it's just running trains on it without passengers, or having the qualified crew members or workers going out there to visually inspect, it's not clear to us yet.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a caller, Miguel in Norwalk ,who has lived through a much bigger earthquake and wants to compare. Miguel, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

Miguel: Oh, my pleasure. What an honor to be on here. Just in reference to your comment about interspecies experience after the 7.1 earthquake that I experienced in Oakland, someone noticed there was an uptick in the classified ads for lost animals about a day or two before that. I just thought when you were talking about that, I thought that would be interesting.

Brian Lehrer: About a day or two before that, indicating that those animals may have run away feeling something weird.

Miguel: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: We did get another listener chiming in here, a listener from New Rochelle who says their dog started barking about 5 to 10 seconds before the human in that house felt the quake this morning. Anecdotal, but interesting. Well, what was it like other than that being in a 7.1?

Miguel: Oh, it was terrifying. I thought I was going to die. I was in Oakland about a block away from where the two-tiered highway collapsed. It was the only place where the majority of the 45 people who died, died about a block away from where I was. It was terrifying. I certainly have a story that I tell my friends, but it might be too long for this. Other than to say it was-- I thought my life flashed before my eyes, the first and only time.

Brian Lehrer: Really, really scary obviously.

Miguel: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: This didn't feel scary in that way. This didn't feel reminiscent of that. This felt like, "Oh, this is not anything like that." Would that be accurate?

Miguel: It was scary. I live in a mid-century, modern house with a flat roof, and so when a squirrel runs across my roof, that whole house shakes. If it had lasted more than the 30 seconds or so, I would've been concerned that my house would've collapsed.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Wow. Do I remember correctly that that 1989 earthquake in the Bay Area came at the start, or just before the start of what would've been a World Series game?

Miguel: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: That game got delayed. That was that, right?

Miguel: Yes. For about three hours afterwards, all the news stations were saying there would be hundreds of casualties because the Bay Bridge collapsed, but everyone was at Candlestick Park, so there were only like 45 casualties.

Brian Lehrer: That, I guess, is fortuitous. Miguel, thank you very much for checking in. Stephen, I guess that's another question. The Yankees have opening day this afternoon at one o'clock coming right up. I'm sure they're inspecting the infrastructure there. I guess it's not that kind of thing that would tend to crumble under this magnitude of an earthquake, but I guess for people going to the game, it's another question that they at least have to ask is there going to be any delay in that?

Stephen Nessen: I guess so. I guess so. Can I give you one update I'm just seeing, Brian, that I forgot to mention earlier?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Stephen Nessen: It appears, according to the FAA website, the Federal Aviation Administration, that there is a ground stop at Newark Airport. They just say it's due to other. [chuckles] I guess earthquake concern maybe doesn't fit. Maybe it's not related to the earthquake, but we have to-- It doesn't seem like a coincidence. This is 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. JFK and LaGuardia don't appear to be on this list, but I would imagine folks should probably their flight before they head out.

Brian Lehrer: All right. I think we're going to get a little good news from the Holland Tunnel here from Noah calling in. Noah, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Noah: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I was driving heading to New Jersey and the GPS was sending me to the Lincoln Tunnel, but then it just rerouted me to the Holland Tunnel. So I'm in here safely.

Brian Lehrer: Good. You're in the Holland Tunnel right now?

Noah: I'm in the middle. I think I just passed New Jersey, the portion. There's decent traffic, but everything seems to be normal.

Brian Lehrer: Good. Drive safe, Noah. Thank you very much. How about that, Stephen, cell service in the middle of the Holland Tunnel?

Stephen Nessen: I think that's old, but it's nice that it hasn't been impacted, right?

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] That's right. All right, so a little breaking news there after we had reported that the Holland Tunnel was being closed for inspection. I guess they can do an inspection very quickly. The Holland Tunnel reopened according to driver Noah on his way to the New Jersey side.

Let's talk about this lawsuit a little bit. We'll get into the legal arguments, but your headline on Gothamist is about when the judge will rule on congestion pricing in this lawsuit filed by the state of New Jersey. Why that as the breakout news?

Stephen Nessen: Well, I think from my editor's perspective, folks want to know, is this going to happen and when will we get a decision? The legal arguments are somewhat arcane, and unless you're steeped in environmental law maybe of slightly less interest, people just want to know, is this going to happen? When do I find out? I think was sort of the urgency of putting that at the top of the story as opposed to at the bottom.

Quite frankly, after two, I would say relatively detailed and intense days of hearings, that the judge essentially said he wanted to make it very clear that he's well aware of the deadlines that the MTA mostly is facing. As we've reported, as you've said, they really want to start this on June 15th. Essentially they've already made plans because it's uncertain whether they will be able to do that. The judge says he's well aware of the deadline, but ideally he's going to have them have an answer before then, whether it's May or early June. Sometime in that range, it appears that's what he's thinking anyways.

Brian Lehrer: A little more earthquake news here, just that we're told now that the mayor, Mayor Adams, will speak at noon. We're going to cover that, and we will get some official reporting on things in the City of New York after the 10:23 this morning, earthquake from the mayor at 12 o'clock. In the meantime, listeners, you can keep calling in with your reports, and again, other at this point than just, I felt a lot of shaking.

We appreciate the caller in his car who reported that the Holland Tunnel was open again. We appreciate all of your calls just reporting that there was an earthquake and there was shaking around where you were and what you felt, but now we want to go on to another level of that. If there's something more unusual that you experienced or that you're seeing in terms of damage or anything else, those are the calls that we're really looking for right now as we're inviting you to help us report the story of the local earthquake. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, as we continue on two tracks with our transportation report is Stephen Nessen, the other one being his coverage over the last two days of the New Jersey lawsuit against congestion pricing in Manhattan.

I see that presenting New Jersey and Phil Murphy's case here was a Republican lawyer, usually notorious to Democrats, Randy Mastro, who famously was an aid to Mayor Rudy Giuliani and has been kind of a Giuliani loyalist and represented Chris Christie in Bridgegate. Any idea why Phil Murphy chose Mastro for this assignment?

Stephen Nessen: That's a good question. I've never heard him explain why he chose Mastro other than he appears by all accounts to be a good lawyer. I would say just stylistically, the federal government's lawyers were- their voices didn't project. They were not very animated. They were sort of diligently, dutifully reading from their notes. Whereas Mastro is like up and down waving hands very-- He's gesticulating, he's clearly like a fighter for the state of New Jersey.

To your point, he actually mentioned no less than three times that he was the deputy mayor for New York City as if these sort of bona fides made him a man of-- He has good intentions for public service and like to his flamboyant [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: "Yes, I'm a Rudy Giuliani guy that gives me a lot of credibility in 2024."

Stephen Nessen: Yes. He didn't mention the name Giuliani out loud. He just said a deputy mayor for New York, serving New York City.

Brian Lehrer: Can you summarize New Jersey's basic claims?

Stephen Nessen: Yes. The basic claim is that during this review of congestion pricing and the impacts on the environment in New York and New Jersey, he says New York and the MTA, I should say, the MTA and the federal government did not "take a hard look at the impacts on New Jersey." That's the standard for the NEPA process, which is what he's assailing here. That's the National Environmental Policy Act. I'm not an expert in this at all, but it requires a review of big projects that could impact the environment.

Typically, that's applied to bridges and highways that are being built, but in this case the purpose of the project is to reduce traffic and reduce congestion, but it will alter traffic patterns. It was studied, and that's the core of their argument, is that the MTA didn't take a hard look. Essentially, the judge says, "You need to demonstrate that the decision-making was unreasonable," and that's what he tried to do over the course of two days.

Brian Lehrer: How did the MTA defend itself against that?

Stephen Nessen: As I said, they [chuckles] cited extensive amounts of precedent multiple projects in the past with very long court titles case with-- citing all the citations. Essentially, they said the NEPA process was followed to the letter. They did everything they were required to do.

They put out a 4,000-page report that was extensively detailed down to examining 28 counties in the region and doing a so-called hotspot analysis of any location where there might be a slight increase in traffic and that nothing was overlooked. Every part of New Jersey was thoroughly studied.

Another one of the main arguments is that New Jersey wasn't invited to be part of this process, which they documented extensively as well, that actually, in fact, there were several New Jersey agencies that were consulted throughout the process. In fact, Secretary Pete Buttigieg himself personally briefed Governor Phil Murphy about congestion pricing.

Brian Lehrer: That environmental review was three years?

Stephen Nessen: I believe it was conducted over two years. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: This judge, who presumably is not an environmental expert, not a environmental impact expert, he's got to take these arguments and somehow decide as one individual judge, because I don't believe this is jury trial-

Stephen Nessen: That's right.

Brian Lehrer: -whether that environmental review met the standards. That's a challenge.

Stephen Nessen: That's right. It is. He was actually very clear about not necessarily saying I'm not an environmental expert, but he tried to make it as conversational as possible. Whenever somebody would suggest something, he would fire back and ask, "Is that the law? Is that a rule? Is that written down somewhere?" Quite often I would say, actually the federal government stumbled in that regard, and they had difficulty citing exactly where it says they have to do it this way or they have to do it that way.

To a certain extent, I think part of it's like, well, they have the discretion to do the analysis the way they see fit, and that congestion pricing in some ways is really unique. Obviously, no other city in America has done this before, so they haven't had to do a review exactly like this, but they've done hundreds of thousands of environmental assessments of different projects.

Brian Lehrer: Right. There's a-

Stephen Nessen: Some of the same standards. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: -constitutional argument that they raised too. We'll get to that in a minute. For you as our transportation reporter, I'm going to go back onto the earthquake track for a minute here and take a call from John in Sunnyside who has a report from a subway platform or about something that happened on a subway platform. John, you're on WNYC. Hello.

John: Yes, thanks Brian. I was at the Bryant Park seven platform at about 10:25, and I half stumbled, and then the woman next to me also half stumbled, but into those new yellow barriers that are part of that pilot program. I was always a little skeptical of them, having traveled to Tokyo and other places with like more formal barriers, but my thought in the moment was, "Eh, they work rather than falling onto the platform."

Brian Lehrer: That's a good ending to that story. John, thank you very much. Are you familiar with those barriers to put that in a little bit of context, Stephen?

Stephen Nessen: The platform barriers that the MTA recently put up? Yes, it's pretty new. I think it's only at a couple of stations, a handful of stations. I think they're not going to be able to put in the full platform barriers at every station, but there's trying it out to see how it works at a few stations, so that's good. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: These are barriers that are placed to be in between where the doors would open?

Stephen Nessen: Yes,

exactly. Because the MTA has so many -- not so many but certain lines have multiple types of train cars that use the stations, there's different types of C trains and A trains now.

Brian Lehrer: That open in different places.

Stephen Nessen: Right, so it is a little tricky but at a few stations, they have identified places where it's essentially one type of train car.

[alarm]

Brian Lehrer: There we go again. As I said before listeners, the emergency alerts are not silenced when you put your phone on silence, as I now have learned. There's the latest emergency alert from the City just saying that the earthquake happened. I think it's a repeat of the earlier alert, although it's already disappeared from my screen. Stephen, if you're getting that as well on your phone, you could pass along what's new there.

I presume that the barriers were put up because people are afraid of being pushed onto the tracks these days more than they were in the past. That's correct.

Stephen Nessen: It's not that they're afraid, but there have been several shovings recently.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, of course.

Stephen Nessen: It's just become untenable for the MTA to continue to say, "Sorry, there's nothing we can do about it." In fact, do you remember Michelle Alyssa Go, who was pushed at Times Square? After that incident-

Brian Lehrer: Of course. Of course.

Stephen Nessen: -they did say they were going to do a so-called platform screen door pilot. That still hasn't even been implemented yet. They were going to do that on the 7, the L, the E, I think that's going to start sometime soon. That's installing some heavy-duty platform screen doors like you might see in Japan or other more modern subway systems.

Brian Lehrer: Daniel in Westfield, New Jersey, is calling in with a memory of being at the World Series game in 1989 when the San Francisco Earthquake hit out there. Daniel, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Daniel: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. You were at that game?

Daniel: I was indeed. Yes. It's still ingrained in my memory. I was there with my father. I was nine years old at the time. The game, as I recall, had not quite started, and I was out in the walkway where the concessions were with my dad. As I recall, there were peers extending out from that walkway, and I was on one of them with a hot dog and a drink and the earthquake hit. It was 35 years ago or whatever now, but I remember dropping my drink over the side and just thinking like, "Oh man, I hope it doesn't hit someone."

A gap opened between this pier and the walkway. My dad was on one side and I was on the other, and it was flexing open and closed. I, for a moment, considered jumping over. I just remember my father saying, "Stay there." It was quite traumatic much more so than this one. Although this one, in my experience, having grown up in San Francisco for much of my youth, was a real legit earthquake.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, yes, absolutely. That one over 7 whereas this one was a 4.7 which is really, really much lighter. Daniel, thank you for sharing that kind of frightening experience. That's what it's like to be in an earthquake over 7 at least in a major league baseball stadium.

Stephen, I guess it's worth us trying to get an answer on the Yankee game, opening day Yankee Stadium, one o'clock, and opening day they almost always sell out. That means 50,000 people are headed there. Just to make sure that they're still playing. I imagine if they're reopening the Holland Tunnel already, that Yankee Stadium is probably in good shape but I don't know that. I'm going to look and maybe our newsroom can check because there are probably some people listening right now in their cars on the way to Yankee Stadium.

Stephen Nessen: I will say I'm in front of my computer here and one minute ago the New York Yankees tweeted "Almost that time."

Brian Lehrer: They tweeted what exactly?

Stephen Nessen: The phrase "Almost that time..."

Brian Lehrer: Get ready. It's going to be great, Aaron Judge.

Stephen Nessen: I think they're ready.

Brian Lehrer: I guess the game's happening. All right. Before you go, we're going to switch guests. We have a physicist who was originally booked to talk about the eclipse coming on Monday. We're going to do both things with him. We're going to keep talking about the earthquake and also talk about the eclipse.

Just on the lawsuit by New Jersey against congestion pricing, you were in the courtroom the last two days, can you summarize the constitutional argument? In addition to the Environmental Review 1 allegedly being insufficient, aren't they saying congestion pricing is unconstitutional the way it's laid out?

Stephen Nessen: One of the arguments was that by charging New Jersey drivers, I believe it'll impact interstate commerce, I believe is one of their concerns. That was actually not something that was discussed at all in the two days of oral arguments. It was a late filing. After the lawsuit was filed, it was added after that.

Brian Lehrer: I'm going to jump in because Governor Hochul has just started speaking about the earthquake. We're going to go to Governor Hochul live.

Governor Kathy Hochul: -and all over the State of New York and indeed the east coast, we're taking this extremely seriously, and here's why. There is always the possibility of aftershocks, and I'll get to that in a moment, but we have not felt the magnitude of an earthquake of this level since about 2011. Actually, I was in Washington, DC at the time in my apartment when I was in Congress was severely damaged. We felt those effects all the way up to Buffalo, New York. These are wide-scale possibilities.

This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast to occur in the last century. I immediately directed my emergency management team the second we received word of this to start doing damage assessments, any life in danger, and finding out whether there's any bridges or tunnels that are compromised. That was the first reaction you'll be hearing from the team that has been working on that.

I also immediately spoke to Governor Phil Murphy to offer any assistance and to find out what is happening in his state, which again was the epicenter. Our teams have been in constant communication with the Mayor of New York. We also spoke to the MTA to ensure the structural integrity of the subway system, the Port Authority--

I want to announce that right now, JFK and Newark airports are on full ground stops to assess any potential for after-effects. We've been in contact with the utility companies to make sure that the gas and electric services continue. I will report that Amtrak and MTA are on full schedule. No disruption there at this time.

Been in communication with the White House. They reached out to us. The deputy of Homeland Security Advisor who's actually with President Biden right now surveying the damage in Baltimore called us. I believe they felt the effects even in Baltimore. It's been a very unsettling day, to say the least, but the White House offered any assistance. Senator Schumer reached out, offered any assistance.

Right now it's most important that we have our structural teams out there, our engineering teams surveying our bridges, our roads, any area there could be a fault line that is not easily detectable to make sure that passengers on our rails as well as our commuters are safe.

Assessing all state roads, Commissioner Dominguez is taking lead on that, making sure our state roads are safe. Major transmission lines and dams because you don't always see the effects of a small crack that actually could develop into a real major problem. We're also encouraging all the municipalities throughout the state of New York to assess for any structural integrity concerns.

At this point, heading into an hour and a half after the effects, we've not identified any life-threatening situations, but we are certainly asking our local law enforcement and emergency services teams to be on guard for that as well. Again, we are going to be reviewing all potentially vulnerable infrastructure state sites throughout the State of New York. That is critically important in the aftermath of an event like this.

Now, again, I have a few safety tips because New Yorkers are not accustomed to having earthquakes in our state. Everyone should continue to take this seriously. If there is an aftershock, people are encouraged to drop and to cover and to hold on- drop to the floor, cover your neck, and hold on to something that is sturdy. Take caution near any damaged buildings. Again, we don't have reports of damaged buildings at this time. It is very early in the assessment process, but if there is an after-effect, please stay away from buildings, especially our high rises.

If you hear shifting or any noises, unusual noises, leave your home, go outside. You are safer there than in a building that could be crumbling around you. Inspect your home for damage. Check walls, floors, doors, windows, staircases. If you see any damage at all, you may need to relocate while the event is going on. Again, check your own gas lines and water lines to make sure that your family is safe. Stay connected and informed.

I will say this, especially with all the national news about what happened in Taiwan with that deadly earthquake just this past week, I think there's a high level of anxiety around earthquakes. The magnitude, which Catherine Garcia and Commissioner Bray will explain, that was a 7.4 magnitude in Taiwan. Again, we are 4.8 and they'll explain the difference, but that's why we're going to continue to take this very seriously and make sure that we continue to update all New Yorkers. Catherine Garcia, our head of state operations, you'll hear from first, and then Commissioner Jackie Bray, head of Homeland Security.

Director Catherine Garcia: Thank you. Thank you, Governor. I want to reiterate that we have no reports of damage at this time, and that immediately all of the infrastructure agencies activated their policies and procedures to deal with this because while highly unusual in the state of New York, we do actually have fault lines.

This was significantly bigger than ones that are typically felt in the State of New York or occur and actually are not felt. That is because earthquakes happen on a logarithmic scale, which means that a 3.0 is 10 times worse than a 2.0, so a 4.0 is 10 times easier than a 5.0. Every one of those makes a significant difference in what you will experience and what the damage could be.

In addition, we are also tracking whether or not there's any increase in hospitalizations, as well as whether or not there's any increase in vehicle accidents that has not been reported at this time. Thank you.

Governor Hochul: Commissioner Bray.

Commissioner Bray: Not much to add above. The Governor and Director Garcia covered it. I would say we did see an overloading of cell circuits in the New York City area immediately after the event. We've been in touch with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Their networks are clear now and back up and working and we have opened--

Brian Lehrer: We're going to cut out now that they're just starting to repeat themselves in Governor Hochul's appearance about the earthquake that hit the metropolitan area. Again, it was 10:23 this morning. When it hit, the epicenter was about 40 miles west of New York City in Jersey, of course.

We are getting one report now from the AP of a regional rail line that shut down. It's in the Philadelphia and New Jersey southern suburbs area that says the PATCO regional rail line, which runs between Philadelphia and the Jersey suburbs suspended service. PATCO said crews will inspect the integrity of the line out of an abundance of caution. It said there was no timeframe for when service would resume.

Good news from the governor there, that there are no reports of major damage, or injuries, or deaths at this time in New York, but they're trying to do due diligence and do inspections of various things since an earthquake, even of this magnitude, 4.7, is very unusual in our area.

I want to take a quick phone call from Eric in Queens, who is a former Daily News reporter, he told us, who covered the last New York City earthquake. Eric, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

Eric: Hey Brian. Yes, the 1994, it was January 16th. It came out of Reading, Pennsylvania, and I was covering it for the Daily News. It shook up New York. At first, it was a 4.0 on the Richter scale, but I think everyone would be interested in about an hour and a half later. There was an aftershock of 4.8, and that really freaked people out.

Brian Lehrer: In fact, the latest emergency alert that everybody just probably got on their phones a few minutes ago, was about exactly that. Just that there's a possibility that there could be aftershocks. Be alert to that possibility. I don't know what that means you do necessarily, but alerting people to that possibility.

Eric: Right. I guess prayer is one of the things you might do. The other thing, specifically for New York, the buildings here have not-- in the reporting I did back then, everyone was telling me, well, you know in New York, we don't have one, but it can happen and our buildings are not designated for earthquake-resistant designs. A lot of our buildings are really vulnerable if it gets worse than it has been today already.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for that. We are expecting an appearance by the mayor shortly. We'll see what he says about the preparedness of the building infrastructure in New York City. Let's see. I think we have a written statement from the mayor now. Looking at that. He released the following statement.

"At approximately 10:23 AM, New York City felt the impact of a 4.8 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter was in Lebanon, New Jersey, about 50 miles from New York City. Our first responders are working to make sure New Yorkers are safe, and at this point, we do not have any reports of major impacts or injuries.

I encourage all New Yorkers to check on your loved ones, and if you feel an aftershock, drop to the floor, cover your head and neck, and take cover under a solid piece of furniture next to an interior wall or in a doorway."

I'm going to repeat that because people are confused. We did get some calls earlier from people whose first impulse was to run outside their buildings, especially if they were in high-rises, but the mayor's official word is, "I encourage all New Yorkers to check on your loved ones, and if you feel an aftershock, drop to the floor, cover your head and neck, and take cover under a solid piece of furniture," that probably means one that wasn't made in the last 20 years, but that's another show, "-next to an interior wall or in a doorway."

Then the mayor adds, "So far no major life safety issues reported. No reported infrastructure issues, but we will continue our inspections of critical infrastructure."

 

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